Throughout time, man has pondered ways to make videogames more enjoyable. Like most things, alcohol was the answer. Greg’s Cheers to Gaming is a series of pieces in which editor Greg Johnson combines gaming with alcohol to make an even more interesting game.

Payday 2 is a co-op game that pits a gang of bank robbers against bank security, swat vans and rival criminals. Each member of the heist team must master a skill point tree. A successful job means a solid payday, but in the case of Drinkday, a Payday-inspired drinking game, players will also be rewarded with a nice buzz.

Crime Net is Online

Career criminals tend to be incredibly stupid or insanely smart. The Payday 2 crew is the latter. Setup with a handler for heists, a varying scale of fellow criminal contacts for new jobs and any number of favors that can be called in, the Payday crew rules whatever city they’re hustling. Jobs vary from knocking over convenient stores to stealing nuclear payloads and the contacts will match — Vlad is a small-time Russian criminal with quick jobs while The Dentist boasts jobs involving robbing large banks and knocking over casinos.

Quietly open the glass cases, or…

Every job has a number of ways to pull off. Four Stores, a heist involving knocking over a convenient store and other retailers in the area, can be done quietly by emptying safes in the back, or loudly with guns blazing and ATMs being ripped open by saw. This variety allows any number of team combinations to find a way to get the job done. Four heavy enforcer players can withstand constant punishment and use their saws to rip through objects, but a more balanced team may have a guy set up to run fast drills while another handles crowd-control.

I Want My Drinkday Too

Drinkday is what you get when you turn Payday 2 into a drinking game. Before you get started, you will need to prepare drinks that would knock down any would-be criminal. We highly recommend you purchase these ingredients at a liquor store and do not attempt to rob it.

The Golden Grin (Shot)

1/3 tequila

1/3 lemonade

1/3 lemon vodka

Hoxton’s Big Wank (Drink)

Half cup of Guinness

Lime juice

Layer with Everclear, then light aflame

Take the shot like this bulldozer, head-on.

Rules are meant to keep tensions high, players alert and gradually raise the difficulty of a Payday heist. Drinkday has the following proposed rules for drinking:

Take a drink whenever you are incapacitated.

Drink whenever a bulldozer appears, and again when it is killed.

Drink twice when you are downed by a cloaker.

Chug while the drill is being fixed, whether you are fixing it or not.

Take a shot when arrested.

Take a shot upon completing a heist — giving your friends cheers of course.

Drink whenever you throw a bag into the getaway van.

Drink whenever an assault occurs.

Enemies like bulldozers and cloakers will only appear on higher difficulties, and thus incapacitation will happen more frequently. As a heist progresses it will inevitably becoming more challenging, and thus more drinking will occur.

Methods of Crime

Stick together. That is the cardinal rule of Payday 2. Teammates that wander off will likely be quickly picked off, forcing the remaining players to risk life and soberness to save them. This is even more important for Drinkday. Players will be able to take their drinks in relative safety and all at once if they stick together.

Oh ineffectual politics, you crazy!

As far as food pairings, criminal don’t have a lot of time for food. Get in the grab-and-go mood by picking up some fast food. Like Vlad’s jobs, this will be quick and easy.

Unlike other drinking games in which players are encouraged to be together, I recommend playing Drinkday through the magic of the Internet. The PC version of Payday 2 is far superior to its console counterparts, so grab a headset and enjoy your friends without leaving the comfort of your own home. The best part is you won’t have to be dodging law enforcement on the way home as you attempt to drive home if you are drunk.